Pistol Reloading for Beginners

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So how much do you need to invest to get setup for reloading? That depends on how much ammo you need. If you’re short on time and need hundreds of rounds each week, then you need to go straight to a high end reloading press, like those made by Dillon. A Dillon XL650 (a very popular reloading press with action shooters, for example) can pump out over 600 rounds per hour, but your investment can be well over a $2000 by the time it’s fully equipped. Many of us don’t need anywhere that many rounds per hour and our reloading equipment budget is also much smaller. What follows is a proven and simple method of how to get accurate ammo, for a minimum outlay. Reloading presses with auto indexing (they progressively move to the next round or next station with each pull of the handle) are good value for pistol reloaders, however the faster and more complicated presses tend to have 4 or 5 operations happening simultaneously, with each pull of the handle. Presses come in many shapes and sizes, from left to right – Dillon XL650, Lee Loadmaster, Hornady Lockn-Load AP and RCBS Pro 2000 – all are 5 station progressive presses. Fast, but complex and costly. When you’re new to reloading this makes it very difficult to keep track of your quality control because you can easily develop a problem, or run out of one ingredient (powder, primers or cases) before you notice and end up creating some dud loads. So if you’d like to have more control over what’s happening (only one thing happening at a time) and you’re happy with making around 100 to 200 rounds per hour, here is a simple way to get into reloading. Shown at right is a 4 stage Lee Turret Press fitted with a Lee Pro Auto-Disk powder measure (red cylinder at the top) and an RCBS primer system (long, thin, almost vertical aluminium tube). It is progressive in that the turret (with the dies) rotates 90 degrees each time the handle is pulled. Only one case is in the press at a time, so it takes 4 pulls of the handle to complete each round, but it allows you to see each and every operation so you have greater control over the quality of your reloads. Lee Turret press about 20 years old and has done tens of thousands of rounds. Not as fast as full progressive presses, but easy to setup, simple to maintain and accurate. Pistol Reloading 2.docx PWD 26Jun13
RELOADING STEPS First step in reloading is to clean your fired brass. This prevents undue wear on your dies and pistol barrel chamber. A tumbler, like this Lyman brand, using crushed corn cob or walnut shell media, will give nice clean, shiny brass after a couple of hours of gentle vibration. After you’ve set up your press and dies using the instructions that come with them; load a clean case into the shell holder. Position the de-capping and resizing die above the case. Raising the press ram will now force the case into the die which will resize it and also push out the used primer. While press ram is up, the priming lever (“T” shape on this press) is moved away from the press to grab a fresh primer from the dispenser. Pushing the priming lever back toward the press positions it inside a slot in the ram, directly underneath the newly resized case. Photo shows new primer about to go into the ram slot. A downstroke of the press ram will now insert the primer into the case. Each downstroke of the press ram rotates the die head 90 degrees to line up the next die in sequence. The next upstroke of the press ram will flare the case mouth to allow the new bullet to be easily inserted and drop the required amount of power into the case. What you DON’T want to see – no powder in case! Lower the ram, visually check there is powder in the case (a small desk lamp alongside your press is essential for this). If you run out of powder or if a problem develops you will see it before you create dud rounds. If powder is present, insert the new bullet by hand. The next upstroke will seat the bullet to the required depth and remove the flare from the case. The fourth and last upstroke of the press ram runs the new round through the Lee Factory Crimp die, which again resizes the case to remove any bumps and lumps caused when inserting the bullet, and will also apply a crimp if required. Heavy loads in revolver or lever action rifle are usually crimped, where rounds for most semi-auto pistols are not. Check the loaded overall length of your newly reloaded round. This is a check on your die settings. Correct overall length is important for the pistol to load and function correctly. Pistol Reloading 2.docx PWD 26Jun13
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Pistol Reloading for Beginners

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